Reality check

From Redskins defensive lineman Phillip Daniels about this past weekend's 52-7 thrashing at the hands of the Patriots - "That's running up the score, there isn't any other way to look at that. C'mon, man, you're going for it on fourth down and you're up by 38 points. You're throwing the ball late in the game. Most teams just run the clock out to get the win. They don't think like that, but I guess it's our job to stop them. You can't do anything about it, just go out and play defense and try to stop them."

Daniels went on to say that he talked to Belichick after the game, accusing the Patriots coach of having no respect for the game, and saying that coaches like Bill Parcells and Bill Walsh would never have run up the score that way. Part of the point being that the old-school coaches wouldn't run the score up on anyone.

Let's take a quick look at a sampling of what Walsh did during his tenure (1979-1988) with the 'Niners (gotta love having the NFL Record & Fact Book) -

Beat the following by the following scores -
Minn, 1988, 34-9
Seattle, 1988 38-7
Tampa, 1986 31-7
Wash, 1985 35-8
Dallas, 1981 45-14
Dallas, 1983 42-17

Average margin of victory in just this cross-section? 27.2 points per game (ppg).

And of course his protege, George Seifert annihilated the Broncos in the Super Bowl in '89 (the year after Walsh retired from coaching) 55-10, after beating the Rams (30-3) and Vikings (41-13) in the playoffs. Average margin? 33.3.

Speaking of Dallas, how about the old-school coach Tom Landry -

San Fran, 1980 59-14
Seattle, 1980 51-7
Denver, 1980 41-20

Average margin? 36.7.

As for Parcells -

St Louis, 1985 34-3
Phoenix, 1988 44-7

Average margin? 34.

Gibbs himself ran up the score on the Falcons in a 1985 contest to the tune of 44-10 and again in 1991 with the result an impressive 56-17 for an average in those two contests of 36.5 ppg. And this doesn't include the 42-17 thrashing Gibbs put on Belichick's Browns in 1991.

People are talking a lot right now about payback for running up the score. Belichick has a long memory, and I think Gibbs just got that payback. It's a bitch, ain't it.

As for Daniels...know your football history before shooting your mouth off, fool.